In the year 478 of the Hijri calendar (1085 CE) the lawyer-theologian Abu Hamid Muhammad al-Ghazali (b. 1058—d. 1111) left his hometown of Tus in Khurasan (N.E. Iran) to enjoy the patronage of the powerful Persian statesman Nizam al-Mulk at the Saljuq court in Isfahan. Thereby the rising star of one of the great classical Muslim thinkers renowned as Hujjat al-Islam ‘The Proof of Islam’ became linked to the service of the powerful Saljuq Sultans. Ghazali remained committed to Ash‘ari theological teachings (kalam) and to Shafi‘i principles of jurisprudence (usul al-fiqh) throughout his life, making this form of Sunni orthodoxy the doctrinal basis for his intellectual and religious thought ......... [click here to download the full article in pdf ]